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BBC America’s Survivors: Hope never dies

The most recent episode of Survivors opens with suburban dad Greg arriving home from work. He greets his two TV-watching kids, then joins his wife in the kitchen where she is preparing dinner. As blood begins to seep through Greg’s dress shirt, the scene switches to Anya and Greg in the back of a moving truck. Anya applies pressure to Greg’s wounds, but blood continues to flow. She yells at Tom to pull over so she can operate.

And so, season two of Survivors begins. The first season was a little slow and a lot repetitive. Episodes dolled out character development in bits, and the message remained the same: Stick together or bad things will happen. We got it, and much faster than the characters did. The season finale ramped up the action, thankfully, with Dexter shooting Greg and the bad guys from the lab stealing Abby.

Tom pulls over when Anya finds what looks like a hotel. She sets up shop and uses the sharpest thing they could find – a carving knife – to operate. She gets most of the shotgun blast, but a piece of shrapnel has lodged itself near the aorta. She needs proper equipment and drugs; she needs a hospital. When Sarah whines that hospitals will be filled with dead bodies and rats, Anya gives her the job of keeping Greg still while she, Tom and Al find a hospital. When Sarah complains that she hates blood, Najid tells her to get over it.

BBC America

Don’t just stand there, Al, help Anya and Tom carry Greg!

Back at the lab, the bad guys have a sleeping Abby in isolation. Whitaker wants to start with the draining, but Sami refuses to be involved. Whitaker turns over Abby’s care – or lack thereof – to Fiona. When Abby wakes, she tells Fiona that if she comes anywhere near her with that giant needle, she’ll stick it in her eye. They untie Abby and try to calm her down.

Anya finds a hospital, but it’s on fire. She says not to worry and gives everyone their marching orders. Tom is to go to the pharmacy for drugs, while Al and Anya head to the operating room for equipment. As the hospital crumbles around them, Anya and Al become trapped. Tom returns to the hotel to get Sarah and Najid, leaving Greg on his own because Anya needs them way more than Greg does. Ouch. Why not leave Najid to look after Greg? At the hospital, Sarah whines that she hates rubble and Najid tells her to get over it, or something like that.

Alone at the hotel, Greg fends off feral children and flashes in and out of memories of his life before the outbreak. In one, we learn his wife left him for another man. In another, we see Greg receive a postcard with the phrase “Hope never dies” and six numbers on it. What is this, Lost? Flash Forward, er, Flash Backward?

Abby, finally calm after a ham sandwich with fresh bread, meets with Whitaker. He tells her that they knew about the virus before the crisis, and that they have been trying to develop a vaccine. We also learn that the first cases were reported in China and that she is the only person to recover from the virus that they have found. He calls her a beautiful freak that they need to study before the virus mutates and wipes out more humans.

The people who set fire to the hospital – they were only trying to burn away the death and disease, they didn’t know anyone was inside – return to help dig. When they realize it will take longer than they have to clear the rubble by hand, one of the firestarters tells Tom that a man nearby has a stockpile of various items, including heavy lifting equipment. Sarah’s eyes light up and she volunteers to convince him to help. Is Sarah looking for a new sugar daddy, or is she trying to impress Tom? The man does agree to help, but not out of the kindness of his heart. He wants to slap Sarah around and have sex with her in exchange. We don’t see what happens, but a shaky Sarah returns with the equipment and Tom seems to know exactly what she had to do to get it. They dig out Anya and a lifeless Al, who Anya brings back.

Despite the ham sandwich, Abby has refused to cooperate. Whitaker offers to help her find Peter, if she submits to what Fiona calls “a few straight-forward procedures.” Abby agrees. The scientists learn that Abby’s antibodies will allow them to develop a three-month serum against the virus. But, as her antibodies have weakened since the outbreak, they really should reinfect her to get the best results. Sami decides enough is enough and tries to break Abby out, telling her that if they don’t have her, “they can’t come back.”

In Greg’s final flashback of the episode, we see him beating up his wife’s new boyfriend. She tells him to take a good look at himself, which is an understandable response to violence, but maybe she should do the same, seeing as how she’s a big, fat cheater. She then tells Greg that she is taking the children on holiday, one that an earlier episode told us that they never returned from, thanks to the outbreak.

Anya and the gang return to the hotel to find Greg, and Anya removes all of the shrapnel. When Tom asks, “what now,” Greg turns on him and tells him to leave. He blames Tom. After all, if he hadn’t killed Gavin in cold blood, Dexter wouldn’t have hunted them down. Tom stomps out, despite protestations from the others, and the remaining survivors discuss plans to find Abby.

In the final scene of the season premiere, we see Whitaker log onto a video chat with another man. No, not Chatroulette. Turns out, Whitaker and his minions work for a pharmaceutical company! The two talk about Abby and whether or not she is the key to “them” coming back. The episode ends with the man telling Whitaker that hope never dies, before the camera pans right to show a postcard next to Whitaker’s computer, a postcard just like the one Greg received before the outbreak. Interesting.

Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate.